Insurance. Have you doubled up on insurance without realising it?
Have you ever totted up how much you spend on insurance?
Try adding up your premiums now - we think you'll be shocked at how much you spend. You'll be even more surprised to learn there's also a likelihood that you've duplicated some of the cover you're paying for. Cut the duplication out and you'll save precious money. Many people have insurance cover for theft, legal expenses, loss ( mortgage rates ) of income, even death without even realising it. This arises because lots of people don't fully appreciate what's covered by the policies they have, especially if the policies had been arranged for them by brokers and financial advisers. In a recent survey, The Financial Services Authority (FSA) found that optional extras such as legal expense cover and breakdown recovery, were often added to car insurance policies without checking whether the policyholder already had cover elsewhere. It is also quite common to find that people with Income Protection policies have duplicated their cover via their payment protection policies taken out to cover monthly mortgage, loan and credit card payments. The issue here is that if they claim on their Income Protection policy, their payout will be reduced because part of their claim is already covered by their other payment protection policies - so that's a waste of money. The Financial Ombudsman confirms our view saying, "People often contact us when they find themselves over-insured. They often do not realise until they make a claim that they have been paying for a policy that provides very little, if any, benefit". There is also plenty of evidence that some people simply don't understand what they are actually insured for. Take the situation of Amanda Lariviere from West Yorkshire. The mother of two is recovering from ovarian cancer and had an ( online car insurance ) allergic reaction to chemotherapy which was still keeping her off work. She decided to visit her building society to enquire if she could raise some cash by re-mortgaging to pay an unwelcome tax bill. The Society's adviser wisely asked her to bring in all her life insurance policies so that they could be used in her re-mortgage application. So imagine her surprise when the adviser told her that the policies with Scottish Provident and Norwich Union which had been costing her £80 per month, were not life insurance policies at all - they were in fact critical illness policies with a combined insured value of £100,000. She has now received a payout from both policies, enough to pay off some of her mortgage and her tax bill! Some typical insurance cover to check out. |
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